Advancing Human Assessment

This book is open access under a CC BY-NC 2.5 license.​​

This book describes the extensive contributions made toward the advancement of human assessment by scientists from one of the world’s leading research institutions, Educational Testing Service. The book’s four major sections detail research and development in measurement and statistics, education policy analysis and evaluation, scientific psychology, and validity. Many of the developments presented have become de-facto standards in educational and psychological measurement, including in item response theory (IRT), linking and equating, differential item functioning (DIF), and educational surveys like the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), the Programme of international Student Assessment (PISA), the Progress of International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS) and the Trends in Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS). In addition to its comprehensive coverage of contributions to the theory and methodology of educational and psychological measurement and statistics, the book gives significant attention to ETS work in cognitive, personality, developmental, and social psychology, and to education policy analysis and program evaluation. The chapter authors are long-standing experts who provide broad coverage and thoughtful insights that build upon decades of experience in research and best practices for measurement, evaluation, scientific psychology, and education policy analysis. Opening with a chapter on the genesis of ETS and closing with a synthesis of the enormously diverse set of contributions made over its 70-year history, the book is a useful resource for all interested in the improvement of human assessment.

Randy E. Bennett is Norman O. Frederiksen Chair in Assessment Innovation in the Research & Development Division at Educational Testing Service in Princeton, New Jersey. Bennett's work has focused on integrating advances in cognitive science, technology, and educational measurement to create approaches to assessment that have positive impact on teaching and learning. From 1999 through 2005, he directed the NAEP Technology Based Assessment project, which included the first administration of computer-based performance assessments with nationally representative samples of school students, and the first use of "clickstream,” or logfile, data in such samples to measure the processes used in problem solving. From 2007 to 2016, he directed an integrated research initiative titled, Cognitively Based Assessment of, for, and as Learning (CBAL^®), which focused on creating theory-based summative and formative assessment intended to model good teaching and l

Matthias von Davier is Distinguished Research Scientist at the National Board of Medical Examiners (NBME), in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Until 2016, he was a senior research director in the Research & Development Division at Educational Testing Service (ETS), and co-director of the center for Global Assessment at ETS, leading psychometric research and operations of the center. He earned his Ph.D. at the University of Kiel, Ger